"ideal ways to spy on people and take their passwords."

It's true, even with open source projects that are vetted, they can always be changed later.

I would be more worried if Steemit didn't have our funds locked up via the power-down feature.

"It sucks because now I have to check randowhale manually all day long!"

Haha, if you're powered up, the risk is minimal. Time is money...